Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Republicans in the 2000 and 2004 elections had attracted a significant number of Hispanic votes. Even before that President George W. Bush had been successful in his campaigns for governor of Texas in attracting them. That was understood to be the reason he parted with GOP orthodoxy in supporting "a pathway to citizenship" for the undocumented. The Evangelicals claim about 15% of Hispanics and are growing in number and organizational sophistication. They are not just store-front churches any more. They tend to lean toward the political conservatism of Anglo Evangelicals.

The Sensenbrenner Bill at Christmas 2005 put an ended to an growth in support for GOP among Hispanics -- even among many anti-Castro Cubans in Florida and Evangelical Hispanics . That showed up in the congressional election of 2006. Now with all the Republican candidates for presidential nomination -- save for John McCain -- running tough on immigration, the drift toward the GOP has ceased and turned around. Some Republican strategists hope to hold the Hispanic Evangelicals. But as the Chicago Tribune article reports, that is not happening. Not only are they reassessing their ties to Republicans, they are also reassessing their relations with Anglo Evangelicals who seem for the most part to favor the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

. . . MEANWHILE ON THE BORDER "THE WALL" PROGRESSESMany landowners along the U.S.-Mexican border have resisted plans of the Army Corps of Engineers to start surveying for the fence. A federal judge ordered that it can go ahead, but he also ruled that no land can be taken without a hearing. The decision both quickens and delays construction of "the Wall." The Associate Pressitem does not mention whether the decision will be appealed.